LAST OF THE PHOTOS FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS (UNTIL OUR NEXT VISIT) - SATURDAY 2-10-24 - VISITOR CENTER

 

This is the Visitor Center as we were heading towards our car, but I took photos of what I found inside before we left. I saw the artwork first. I recognized this one as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial with the blossoms blooming. The Cherry Blossom Festival will be in the spring. In fact, The National Park Service announced that the trees would reach peak bloom from March 23-26.

This lady's website can be found here, where you can see more of her work, including these art pieces, which have a 3-D application on them. This one is called "To Love Freely"...

and this one is called "My Roots Go Down".

It took me a moment or two to realize there were faces in the roots of the tree. I would be very interested to know what is her inspiration for all these works. As I often say, my photos don't give them the justice they deserve. They are much better seen with one's own eyes. I do love all forms of art and I found these very compelling.

Next, meet the very sweet and curious Barry the Box Turtle.

In the next photo you can read that Barry is an Eastern Box Turtle. I hope Barry's time in the terrarium won't be too long. The other inhabitants (the last being the bearded dragon I got quite fond of) have since moved on. The picture below with the information may be seen more clearly if you enlarge it, or you can click on this link which will take you to the Smithsonian's National Zoo website.  It has more information about Barry's kindred.

I expect Barry will get more company as the weather gets warmer and more visitors arrive. But hopefully he will be wandering around in his own natural habitat by then. I will be sure to check on our next visit.

These were the last photos taken on our trip to the garden on 2-10-24. No doubt we will be going back as soon as the weather warms up.

Here's my logo with a little added advice from the turtle. I do this as a gentle reminder to myself. Too many tripping hazards out there, and I am often reminded by my dear other half to slow down. There are times when my brain just goes full steam ahead, with my body saying what the heck are you doing to me, I really can't catch up, and yes I am smiling.

MORE FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS IN VIENNA, VIRGINIA 2-10-24

It was lovely seeing flowers blooming around the garden. Crocus, for instance, was putting on a lovely show. These are Woodland crocus, other names Tommasini's crocus, Tommies and Early crocus. Its botanical name is Crocus tommasinianus. Woodland crocus should always be planted in the fall. You will see its blooms from late winter to the spring. If you go to this link it will tell you how to grow and take care of them.

Next are the snowdrops. They are quite sturdy and are one of the only flowers that thrive in winter. You will often see them poking through when the snow melts. They make a lovely sight don't they?  I am always interested in other names for all flowers, including the botanical ID, which is Galanthus nivalis for the snowdrop. Those other names are Common snowdrop, Fair maids of February, Little sister of the snows, Purification flower, Candlemas bells, Candlemas lily and Common bells.

Longfield Gardens has a page which gives information on planting and taking care of them.  You can access that here. Snowdrops are very old. A Greek botanist and philosopher wrote about them in the 4th century, but at that time they were called white violets. Because snowdrops have been in the UK for centuries, many believed it was native to Britain. However, they were actually discovered in Europe and the Middle East, and it was the Romans who actually brought them to the UK.

One of the things I was fascinated on this visit, was the lichen growing on the trees, and even an old bench, one of the few I didn't sit on but did take photos.

According to my trusty plant app, this particular fungi is called Parmeliaceae. That is also its botanical name and it is a large family of lichen-forming fungi. Nearly all fungi within the Parmeliaceae family, has a symbiotic association with green Algie.  It comes in a very wide variety of shapes, and insects either eat or nest in these lichens. 

It gets its nutrients through photosynthesis, and if like me you need a refresher on what that is, here is the description I found online: "Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.  Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct."

This family of lichen can grow and flourish just about anywhere, from tree canopies to in-between rocks. They thrive in a multitude of climates as well, ranging from the Arctic to the rainforest. It is a massive family with more than 2700 different species within it.

I always look forward to our next trip to the garden.  It will be interesting to see what replaces the sign. The green reed-like plant is actually wild garlic, but I'll let that go for now.

Just some odds and bods I photographed. The flying pig bottom left of the collage, with a larger snapshot below that, has been at the garden for years. He is placed in the fairy garden. All the fairies have disappeared. I am hopeful we will see them again during the warmer months and the weather isn't quite so harsh. They haven't taken the fairy garden sign down.

The ID marker stuck next to these branches, said it was the Golden Curls Willow. You can find information here. The ID actually identified it as the Golden Curls Corkscrew Willow. I'm pretty sure it is correct as my photo and the one on the website look identical.  One of the first times I checked with my plant app and it didn't have any information about this particular tree.

That's all for this post.  I have a few that I took inside the visitor center, photos of a few art pieces, and will share those another time.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is full of sunshine.  

MORE PHOTOS FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS - SATURDAY 2-10-24

 I am starting off today with a photo of Lena Lake.  We walked down the hill and made our way along the adjacent path. The garden holds its own beauty at this time of the year.  

Next to the tree is a Panicle Hydrangea, in its dried form. Also known as Peegee hydrangea, with its botanical name Hydrangea paniculata. The first link will give you more information and show you its blooms during the warmer months. I also have a few photos on a previous post taken at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden in September 2019, where I share the same information. You can see them if you scroll down the page. There are three photos with them in bloom.

It is a native to Japan and China. This small tree can grow between 3 to 16 feet, with a maximum diameter of 8 feet. Its leaves contain cyanide and need I say? It should not be ingested. The hydrangea bloom colors come from the soil's pH.  If the soil is more acidic, the bloom will be more of a blue color. However, if the soil is more alkaline, the flowers will be pink. At this time of the year it is dried and would look very pretty in botanical arrangements I'm thinking.  

These leaves nearby are from the Common foxglove. I didn't recognize it as such. It has many names and I will pick a few; Lady's glove, Fairy's glove, Dragon's Mouth, Fairy Bells, Fairy's Petticoat and Gloves of Mary. Its botanical name is Digitalis purpurea. Native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa, you can see its blooms at this link. Unfortunately, it is severely toxic so best to keep it away from children and pets. It loves acidic soils in woods, heaths and mountain grasslands. The name comes from the medieval English, fox-glove, and was first known by the Anglo-Saxon name Foxes glofa. There is a very interesting article here on Wikipedia that I enjoyed reading.

Here it is again, this time next to two clumps of Carnations, minus blooms. Also called Clove pink, Border carnation and Mini carnation, its botanical name Dianthus caryophyllus.  An interesting story I read was that some scholars believe that the name "carnation" comes from "coronation" or "corone", which refers to the flower garlands, as it was one of the flowers used in Greek ceremonial crowns. Others think the name stems from the latin "caro" or "carnis" which refers to the original color of the flower.  

The carnation was imported to the USA from France in 1852 via a French shipment to Long Island. No one is 100 percent sure from where they originated, but old publications strongly indicate that its native home may have extended from Greece through Asia Minor to Persia. Theophrastus referred to carnations as Dios Anthos (the flower of the gods) which became known, in later usage, as the divine flower. I love these journeys I take online, one link leads to another and here I am reading about a man born in c 371 BC, who was a friend of Aristotle. So, a skip along several steppingstones, from the Carnation to an ancient Greek named Theophrastus, whose friend and teacher was Aristotle, isn't that something?

This is the back of the visitor center. They always have a lovely display, and it is completely covered in flowers in the warmer weather. I think they did a nice job at this time of the year also. The tree looked real at first, and then you look closer and see that it is a fake one. The flowers on the branches are lights. It must look beautiful when the lights are turned on as the sun goes down. 

I have a few more photos from the garden but I will share them another time.

MORE PHOTOS FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS - SATURDAY 2-10-24

I found these cabbage plants very interesting. You can read about them on this website. I am curious whether they are actually edible and this is what the website had to say about them. "While Ornamental Kale and Cabbage are technically edible, they’re not very palatable. Their main purpose is to serve as decoration in the cooler months of Winter and Spring, especially in decorative pots. While one wouldn’t usually think of vegetables as being particularly decorative, these plants come in beautiful shades of pinks, greens, purples, and whites." I also read on my plant app that "Native peoples selectively cultivated the wild cabbage over centuries to produce broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and more."

The name cabbage comes from the word caboche, from the middle English language meaning 'head'. Coincidentally, its circle-shaped appearance looks like the shape of a head, hence its name. Also, its botanical name is Brassica cleracea." 

The Johnny Jump-ups above were growing nearby also. I mentioned them in this post from November 2020.

Did you know that there are 20,000 known bee species worldwide and 4,000 of them are native to the United States? They range from the tiny (2 mm) and solitary Perdita minima, known as the world’s smallest bee, to kumquat-sized species of carpenter bees. The link to the tiny bee takes you to a great illustration on Facebook, showing the comparison in size of each bee.

Honeybees are not native to North America. They were originally imported from Europe in the 17th century. Honeybees now help pollinate many U.S. crops like fruits and nuts. In a single year, one honeybee colony can gather about 40 pounds of pollen and 265 pounds of nectar.  This information came from here. As we know, every colony has a queen. She controls it with a special pheromone, which unifies the bees in her care. A Queen bee can lay up to 3,000 eggs in just one day. Worker bees feed her and cater to her every need. 

I have seen bee hotels at the garden for a while now.   I found a website that gives instructions on how to make one. You can see it here and more info here.

Ginny, our dear blogging friend over at Let Your Light Shine, asked a great question via her husband Phil. It made me even more curious to make a further search for their answer.  I found this at the forum Quora.  I didn't provide a link to that because you have to join up so if you are interested, I thought you could just put it in your search engine.  Anyhow, the answer I found to Ginny and Phil's question was this: "Before the introduction of the honeybee, North America (USA and Canada) was home to a variety of native pollinators, including bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and hummingbirds. These native pollinators played a crucial role in pollinating native plants and crops before the arrival of the honeybee." Thank you Ginny and Phil for such a great question about how did things get pollinated beforehand. This is how I learn, and I always love learning something new each day, especially in my favorite topic, all about nature.

It was lovely seeing the crocus growing all over the garden, and the snowdrops among a tangle of fallen branches.    

A favorite focus of mine is the gazebo, this time with branches of witch hazel in the foreground.  

Gregg caught a small flock of geese as they flew in and these two were perfectly in frame. Always happy to see them.  It was very overcast that day.

That's the last photo for now. Still plenty more but it's time for me to put the computer to sleep. Gregg was over in Bethesda with our son today. They had some great father-son time. My day went quickly as I did a few chores; tidy-up time, fresh linens on the beds and I even got round to making a batch of cookies. If they turn out I'll post them sometime.  I had to use up ripe bananas and I wanted a change from banana bread.  (Added note: I was a wee bit disappointed in the recipe I found, so I will not be sharing.  Onwards and Upwards :))

PHOTOS FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS - SATURDAY 2-10-24

What's this?

"It's a Knight, not a horsey!" or so the quote goes.  This gave me another smile.  I always, before I was aware of the significance of each chess piece when at a very young age, liked horsey the best.

We saw the Chess Set last year in a different area of the garden, in between the Visitor Center and the Atrium. There was always a lot of activity around it, so we usually continued our walk down the hill. 

On this visit we found it had been moved to the back of the greenhouse building.  

We were on our own and had fun walking around it and taking photos.

It had been raining but fortunately not when we were there.  

I am typing this on 2-13-24 and we have been out for a good part of the day. We awoke to 28 degrees F. The high was 46. We also had a dusting of snow this morning, but by the time we got back home it had gone. More expected on Saturday apparently, but I don't think it will be much. Here is our forecast through to Thursday the 22nd. You can click on it for a more detailed view.

(Graphics are from my favorite go-to, Pixabay.com)